A commitment to reform Tasmania's child and adolescent mental health service is welcome, and the government must follow through with a fully funded response.
Shadow Health Minister Sarah Lovell said a leaked draft report on the state of Tasmania's Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) painted a damning picture of chronic under-resourcing and systemic failure.
"The draft report confirmed what we have long known - that the approach to service delivery in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services is deeply flawed.
"This is not a reflection on the hard-working CAMHS staff, but on the system itself, which has been set up to fail.
"Two months later, it's good to hear strong words from Jeremy Rockliff about the need for system-wide reform and funding to meet the scale of the challenge.
"We will be watching to make sure those words are matched with the necessary level of funding and swift action. Without both, the government will continue to fail young Tasmanians who desperately need help.
"While the government says it has accepted all the recommendations of the CAMHS review, we're calling for release of the final report, to ensure that everything raised in the draft report is addressed.
"Child and adolescent mental health is one of the most complex areas of healthcare but it is also one of the most important, and fixing it requires a comprehensive rethink.
"We need fundamental, system-wide reform and resourcing that matches the scale of the challenge, to give all young Tasmanians the mental health support they need. This is too important to get wrong."
Sarah Lovell MLC
Shadow Health Minister
